Answered By: Todd White

Last Updated: Jun 15, 2015Views: 142

Before you worry about your parenthetical reference, you need to make sure you cite your source in the bibliography properly. Your parenthetical, or in-text citation, will flow from there.

This is what MLA says about speeches ....

5.5.11 A Lecture, Speech, and Address, or a Reading

In a citation of an oral presentation, give the speaker's name; the title of the presentation (if known), in quotation marks; the meeting and the sponsoring organization (if applicable); the location; and the date. Use an appropriate descriptive label (Address, Lecture, Keynote speech, Reading), neither italicized nor enclosed in quotation marks, to indicate the form of delivery.

But ... since you found this on the Web, you need to give it a tag line to indicate that. It should consist of two things - the word "Web" and the date you viewed the speech on, ie. Web. 7 Sept. 2013.

The 7th edition of MLA does not require you to include the URL. It leaves it you your judgement. If the document can easily be found by the author & title information you have already provided, then you can skip it. If not, or if your professor requires it, then include it.

Now for you in-text reference ... this will be a little more art than science. I don't know if your source for the speech has page numbers, which is a traditional element of the in-text citation. Because of that, you might want to present the in-text citation as information that flows naturally in the writing of you paper (as opposed to be separated out in parentheses.

Looking at the examples of "citing an entire work" and "website, no author or page number."

Without seeing exacting what you are citing it is hard to give further advice. The basic principle is that the in-text citation should easily lead your reader back to the source from your bibliography.